Etymologies

Middle English litterate, from Latin litterātus, from littera, lītera, letter; see letter.

(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

From Latin litteratus. (Wiktionary)

Examples

When it is said: ˜Every literate being is necessarily a human being™, the subject is not something that can be said per se of the predicate, but since ˜literate being™ is not separated from what belongs to a human being in itself, the sentence is conceded as necessary, though when a sentence is necessary in this way it is necessary per accidens.

For although I do not deny that when all the experiments of all the arts shall have been collected and digested, and brought within one man's knowledge and judgment, the mere transferring of the experiments of one art to others may lead, by means of that experience which I term literate, to the discovery of many new things of service to the life and state of man, yet it is no great matter that can be hoped from that; but from the new light of axioms, which having been educed from those particulars by a certain method and rule, shall in their turn point out the way again to new particulars, greater things may be looked for.

Literacy (definition): Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary, literacy is \ "the quality or state of being literate" The term literate has (at least) two definitions: 1) able to read and write 2) Versed in literature or creative writing, having knowledge or competence in a specific field "" visual literacy\ "-" the ability to recognize and understand ideas conveyed through visible actions and images (as pictures) "